Many wireless computing devices, such as laptop computers, personal digital assistant devices, etc., may act as client devices in a wireless networking environment. Often these multiple clients all communicate via the network through shared radio frequency channels to a shared access point. However, when a large number of such client devices attempt to access the network, this sharing of network access points often leads to congestion and a wasting of bandwidth. Congestion often leads to collisions in the channel between data signals and hence to delay.
To overcome these challenges, various control techniques have been implemented with respect to wireless networks to aid in scheduling to avoid collisions. For example, clients may engage in listen-before-transmit (“LBT”) mechanisms, such as the CSMA-CA channel access mechanism, vying for space in the shared channel before transmitting. LBT techniques are a type of distributed coordinated function. CSMA-CA is a particular Ethernet LAN access method. However, with all LBT schemes, if one client device is currently transmitting signals (i.e. data packets) in the channel, other senders are forced to back off and wait a random amount of time before attempting access again. Additionally, even if the client devices detect that the network is free, two such devices may access the channel at exactly the same time, causing a signal collision. When this type of collision is detected, both client devices are forced to back off and wait a random amount of time before attempting transmission again. While the client devices are waiting, channel bandwidth is wasted, packet transmission is delayed, and battery power on the client machine is wasted.
Other mechanisms exist for aiding in scheduling and avoiding collision between data signals over a shared channel. Another example is a point-coordinated function (“PCF”), which repeatedly polls the client devices in order to avoid collisions of signals. However, while PCF techniques avoid the constant back and forth between the competing data signals, the constant polling on the primary channel wastes a large amount of bandwidth, thus making this technique highly inefficient.
While current wireless channel access techniques do produce collision avoidance, they also waste bandwidth on the primary channel used to send data packets because these techniques use the channel both to transmit control and scheduling information and to send useful data. Distributed coordinated functions, such as CSMA-CA, are further inefficient for real-time data because of the forced waiting period. Real-time audio data may no longer be useful, or sufficient, after a forced delay, such as a 100-millisecond delay. Additionally, there is no guarantee of channel access by any of these techniques and there is no mechanism to assure that high priority data signals are transferred in a timely manner.
However, if the access point knows the exact state of every client it is servicing (e.g. number of packets pending in the queue, the packets deadlines, and packet priorities), it can schedule each client independently on the channel. While researchers have attempted to build true work conserving fair queuing algorithms based upon this premise, these algorithms have not been truly work conserving because part of the bandwidth on the channel is used up in transmitting control information to the scheduler and in many cases the media-access control (MAC) protocol has to be changed. Therefore, even with such techniques bandwidth is wasted.
Additionally, while largely avoiding signal collisions, these techniques cause inefficient use of power because they often use a high-powered channel to send control data in addition to useful data. A particular component of a wireless device that consumes a significant amount of power is the network interface card (NIC), which handles the wireless transmission and reception of network communication data. It has been estimated that on average, about 20% of the total power available to a wireless device is dissipated as a result of the connection of a NIC, or other wireless LAN interface component. This phenomenon is due to the fact that the NIC and wireless device must be in a constant “listening” state in order to receive and transmit data via the network. Since the amount of power a battery can provide is rather limited, minimizing the power consumption of a mobile device in order to extend its operation time is an important consideration in the design of battery operated wireless devices, and any communication systems involving such devices.